Perhaps the stainless option is the best solution for the bumpers. What do you guys think.
Hello Andy,
Yes, I think so too.
When I got my car many years ago I thought I'd
'replace all fasteners by stainless steel ones and you are fine' circumventing this stupid rust problem with many of the old ones.
Nevertheless it became quickly clear that most of the screws, bolts, nuts, fasteners on our cars (and on cars in general) must not be stainless steel but must keep their original property class (8.8, 10.9 or 12.9 in our cases) and cannot be substituted by A2-70 or so !!
With the bumper screws and (I think) all types of sheet-metals screws this is certainly different. Most of those can be replaced by A2-70 for better durability on our cars.
On most of these non-important non-torqued screws I use wax, grease or oil during reassembly as well.
The bolts for the (especially front) bumpers are always heavily rusty. I got them yellow zink plated again, but of course those still look odd and old.
New ones from the hardware shop are an alternative, especially after yellow zink (or cad) plating. But those are often no longer made by Kamax or NSF or Verbus or whatever the old ones were.
You can also buy new ones from MB ....
... but I really think the non-visible non-important torque, non-property class-important fasteners (like bumper screws) can be replaced by stainless steel ones...
Just my 2 cents...
Achim
(M8 wrench size 14 screws collector)